EU4EMBLAS: new life of ‘Belgica’ vessel – watch new film

The EU-funded project for improving environmental monitoring of the Black Sea (EU4EMBLAS) has released a new film highlighting the uniqueness and importance of the new vessel donated to Ukraine to reinforce its monitoring of the marine environment in the Black Sea region.

The oceanographic research vessel ‘Belgica’ wastransferred to Ukraine by Belgium this autumn with the support of EU4EMBLAS. The vessel was renamed the Borys Aleksandrov, after the famous Ukrainian marine biologist and director of the Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Sciences.

The vessel had been a flagship of Belgium’s environmental monitoring in the North-East Atlantic until a new research vessel, also named ‘Belgica’, was built. It was then decided to provide the fully operational ship to the Ukrainian Scientific Centre of the Ecology of the Sea (UkrSES), considering that Ukraine does not have any operational vessel suitable for sea monitoring.

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Press release